Electronic video and audio communications (e.g., video or audio conferences or video or audio recordings) typically involve multiple invitees or participants and often include predefined or previously prepared presentations covering one or more topics by one or more speakers. Often times, a participant in an audio or video conference or a listener of an audio or video recording desires to participate in or listen to only a portion of the conference or recording. For example, a participant to a video conference may only be interested in a particular section of a video conference and want to participate only in that section. Or, a listener may only be interested in certain sections or chapters of an audio or video recording.
In the case of video and audio conferencing, if the agenda of the conference call is known ahead of time, and a participant desires to participate in only a portion of the conference, the participant may try to connect to the video conference at the time designated on the agenda corresponding to the desired portion. Similarly, with a recording, if the agenda is known, the listener may fast forward to the time of the recording corresponding to the time on the agenda when the subject matter that the listener wants to hear is scheduled to play.
Unfortunately, conferences and recordings don't always include a schedule or agenda. In these cases, participants may plan to attend the entire conference—even though they know there are sections in which they have no interest, or the participants may plan to attend the beginning of the conference until the subject of interest is presented. Likewise, listeners to a recording may have to listen to the beginning of the recording and continue listening until the subject matter of interest is covered.
In the cases where an agenda by time is known, the conference or recording may not proceed according to the schedule. Thus, if participants join a conference based on the time noted in an agenda, participants in a conference may miss the portion of the conference they intended to participate in or participate in a conference longer than intended when the conference does not go according to the agenda. Similarly, listeners of a recording may have to spend additional time searching for the section of the recording that corresponds to the recording to which they wish to listen, when the recording does not correspond to the agenda.
Therefore, improved systems and methods for notifying conference participants and/or recording listeners when a conference or recording reaches a certain point (e.g., based on content or on a speaker) are desired.
It will be appreciated that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of illustrated embodiments of the present invention.